"Demon"

THE BOTTOM LINE: Well, the good news is that the advertisement I read for this
episode was, as usual, misleading. The bad news is that "DumbOne" is every bit
as, well, dumb as that ad ("aliens who eat DNA!") suggested.

NOXIOUS GAS OF THE WEEK: Deuterium, which is an isotope of the most
common element in the universe, hydrogen, but which the crew of Voyager can't
seem to find. And forget about "Bussard collectors": Deuterium occurs in water; Voyager
can replicate water (remember, the Kazon were so impressed). You do the math. The Voyager
writers are so good at coming up with fake names for technobabble substances; why misuse
the name of a real substance and make themselves look like even bigger idiots?

NEW TECHNOLOGY OF THE WEEK: Those kewl spaces suits are really
versatile. They kept Harry and Tom alive for hours after their oxygen ran out (so why the
computer's urgency and flatline sound effect?). They can be used as Christmas trees, with
all their blinking lights. They are even form-fitting, so that one's (or rather Seven's)
attributes can be shown off.

NEW BIOLOGY OF THE WEEK: Say, that Silver Blood is pretty clever. It's
non-sentient, but can copy DNA. Fine, I guess I can accept that, given Star Trek's
Screwy World of DNA. But it can also replicate memories (which in the Screwy World of DNA
are stored in the DNA). And, despite being non-sentient, having just encountered humans,
and having the memories of only non-biologist Kim and incompetent medic Paris to work
with, they know how to modify human lungs so they can breathe the planet's air. And as an
Added Bonus, they can recreate Starfleet Issue uniforms and working communicators. To
quote Dr. Malcolm, from the film Jurassic Park, "That's one big pile of
shit."

NEW BIOLOGY OF THE WEEK RUNNERUP: Everyone is so astonished by the
change in Paris' and Kim's lungs, that they forget that the skin and just about everything
else about Paris and Kim would have to be changed if they can survive a temperature of
500K.

WELFARE RECIPIENT OF THE WEEK: Star Trek's welfare program
continues to help out unemployed actors, in this case Alexander Enberg, who appears as
Vorrick for no particular reason, especially since Roxann Dawson appears to no longer be
pregnant. I hope he sent Aunt Jeri (Taylor) a Mother's Day card.

WHAT'S HOLDING IT UP? OF THE WEEK: No, not Seven's bustline, but
rather Voyager, perched upon those tiny and malpositioned chicken legs. And by
the way, for those predicting a "Titanic" episode of Voyager, I think
we just got it, with the ship sinking into the silver blood.

PRIME DIRECTIVE VIOLATION OF THE WEEK: This episode features the most
blatant disregard of the Prime Directive in Star Trek history. They aren't
supposed to tamper with the development of pre-warp cultures. Here, Our Heroes radically
alter a pre-sentient culture, given them humanoid form and memories of
all of Starfleet's wondrous technology. How many court-martials can you hold against one
Captain?

GROUPTHINK OF THE WEEK: Apparently, given the size of the crowd at the
end of the episode, everyone in Voyager's crew agreed to leave clones behind.
Wasn't anyone in the crew disturbed about the idea of leaving duplicates of themselves,
including their memories, on this backwater planetoid? That's a far cry from the reaction
of Riker and Pulaski to being cloned in TNG's "Up the Long Ladder." They killed
their clones, and in that case those clones were only biological doubles. I think that the
decision in "DumbOne" was awfully cavalier and off-hand, and warranted more
(hell, some) discussion.